Zeal For Your House Will Consume Me

This morning I started reading from the book of the Prophet Jeremiah:

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, 

 before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you. 

"Ah, LORD GOD!" I said, "I know not how to speak; I am too young." 

But the LORD answered me, Say not, "I am too young," 

To whomever I send you, you shall go; whatever I command you, you shall speak. 

Have no fear before them, because I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD." 

(Jer 1:5-8)

Jeremiah was twenty-two years old when he was called to his task by the Lord. He felt he was too young and too ill equipped for what he was being called to.

He wasn't the only one that felt the impossibility of their human situation or condition:

Abraham and Sarah "I am too old" (Gen 17:17)
Moses: "I don't know how to speak" (Ex 4:10)
Zechariah and Elizabeth: "I am too old" (Lk 1:18)
Saul to David: "You are just a boy" (1 Sam 17:33)

These are just a few of many. In the book of Judges we see Gideon's army defeat the Midianites with only three hundred men, a ratio so disproportionate there could be no doubt that it was by the power of the Lord that they won the victory.

The three hundred were chosen based on the fact that they "lapped up the water as a dog does was its tongue." There are varying interpretations of this, but my inclination is to see these as men who were zealous and committed, kind of rough-around-the-edges, who didn't care what they looked like when they drank.

"Beware the leaven of the Pharisees," Jesus warns (Mt 16:6). If you've ever used stale yeast, you know it is weak in doing it's job. Zeal is the yeast God uses to leaven the loaf. Zeal does not restrict itself to the young or old, the rich or the poor, but is poured out for those who have a heart that "throbs with heat." It is solely inspired by an intense love of God and desire for His glory.

It doesn't exactly consider consequences or appearances, either. David's zeal for and radical trust in the Lord even as a young man prompted him to boldly stand up to and challenge Goliath (1 Sam 17); eat the showbread (1 Sam 21:6); and dance half naked before the Ark with all his might (2 Sam 6). In Jn 2:15, we see the Lord himself overtaken with righteous anger toward those who have desecrated his father's house, driving the money changers out with whip made out of cords, and the disciples recalling David's words in Psalm 69:10: "Zeal for your house will consume me."

When I consider the zeal of a young man like David and how sorely needed it is in our culture today, I look to another young man of our time, St. Jose Sanchez del Rio, who was martyred for the Faith at the age of fifteen when he joined the Cristero uprising in the late 1920's. A story of young Jose struck me as a model for the same zeal that our Lord had in the Temple:

"Jose was outraged by the sacrilegious behavior of his captors who released fighting cocks inside the church, and had them fight in the sacred sanctuary. The colorful fighting birds roamed freely, perching on sacred objects, including the tabernacle. But as soon as Jose saw them, he decided to stop the profanation of the altar. Disregarding certain reprisal from the guards, he grabbed the roosters and cracked their necks one by one.  

After he finished them off, Jose washed his hands with a rag, knelt down and prayed devoutly with a strong and loud voice. He then went calmly to bed. Of this episode, author Luis Laurean Cervantes remarks, "As Christ had cleaned the vendors out of the Temple, he [Jose] had cleaned it of fighting cocks."  

The next morning, when Picazo saw what Jose had done, he was enraged. Picazo wrenched Jose up by the arm and screamed: “Don't you realize what you did? Don't you know the cost of a rooster?!”

Jose replied: “The only thing I know is that the house of God is not a corral nor a barnyard! I am willing to endure everything. Shoot me now so that I can go before Our Lord!”"

We sometimes point to our deficiencies--be it age, ability, or physical attributes--as impediments to doing God's will or accomplishing great things. But the fact is it is very much by these shortcomings that God's power and ability to work miracles occurs. What He asks of us is faith and trust, not ability, even and especially when the odds against us are insurmountable.

In my own life, I have seen miracles and God's power made manifest in the very situations in which I was most powerless, most unable to manifest change on my own, most helpless and most dependent on His grace. That's the point. Sometimes He strips us down to nothing so we don't claim any merit of exacting change on our own. Then He makes things happen.

We trust too little. We have too little faith. When we pray, we don't pray boldly, but with tepidity and hedging our bets. When we try to step out into faith, sometimes we look too far down the road to the impending costs and consequences and reneg. When we see the Lord maligned and His handiwork profaned, we nod or look away.

Jose Sachez del Rio did none of those things. When the Cristeros were forming, he ran headfirst to join them. When the cocks ran wild in the Lord's house, he broke their necks with his bare hands. When he came before his captors, he urged them to 'Shoot me now!' He is a model for me when I think I am too young, or not young enough; too inept, or too scared.; too unwilling to suffer, and too timid to put my neck out for the Faith. For as the Lord said to Paul, "My strength is made perfect in weakness."

St. Jose Sanchez del Rio, pray for us!